TY - JOUR
AU - Bleakley,Hoyt
AU - Lin,Jeffrey
TI - Portage: Path Dependence and Increasing Returns in U.S. History
JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL - No. 16314
PY - 2010
Y2 - August 2010
DO - 10.3386/w16314
UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16314
L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16314.pdf
N1 - Author contact info:
Hoyt Bleakley
University of Michigan
Department of Economics
611 Tappan
218 Lorch Hall
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220
E-Mail: hoytb@umich.edu
Jeffrey Lin
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
Research Department
Ten Independence Mall
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Tel: 215-574-3441
Fax: 215-574-4303
E-Mail: jeff.lin@phil.frb.org
AB - We examine portage sites in the U.S. South, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest, including those on the fall line, a geomorphologic feature in the southeastern U.S. marking the final rapids on rivers before the ocean. Historically, waterborne transport of goods required portage around the falls at these points, while some falls provided water power during early industrialization. These factors attracted commerce and manufacturing. Although these original advantages have long since been made obsolete, we document the continuing--and even increasing--importance of these portage sites over time. We interpret this finding in a model with path dependence arising from local increasing returns to scale.
ER -